Cool collections

Inside the stacks of the Yale Library Shelving Facility (LSF), it’s a brisk 50 degrees Fahrenheit. But the LSF team doesn’t notice as they zip in and out of aisles fulfilling multiple orders. Besides sharp eyes and nimble hands, their primary tool is a red and black electric order picker. This small forklift-style truck enables them to move about LSF’s 64,000 square foot space and up and down its 63,000, 30-foot-high shelves safely and efficiently. 
 

LSF, established in 1998, currently houses over 8.5 million items and is located approximately three miles north of campus in Hamden. This facility provides climate-controlled storage for long-term preservation of the Yale Library’s holdings and high-tech retrieval and delivery services to designated campus locations.

The chilly temperature and low humidity (30%) extend the life of the books, documents (e.g., letters or journals), maps, film reels, and fragile special collections stored there. Over 90% of the materials at LSF are paper. All the materials are held in cardboard or archival boxes, envelopes, or on cardboard trays.

The space is organized for maximum efficiency, and items are shelved based on size. Materials are also grouped by the library they came from (e.g., Divinity or Classics). “When something is requested via the library’s online request systems, we can deliver it within one business day, not including weekends,” said Mike Dadio, manager of Library Collections Services.

A typical workday starts with the generation of paper orders from an inventory management system. With that in hand, team members will hop on one of eight order pickers, tether themselves securely to the truck frame, and begin driving up and down the aisles, at times raising themselves (while standing on the truck’s platform) upwards of 30 feet to retrieve the barcoded, boxed items.

“LSF holds general collections, which include books and other materials that anyone in the Yale community can request to read, research, or use for teaching. We also house special collections, which must be requested for viewing in one of our supervised special collections reading rooms,” said Christopher Killheffer, director of Library Collection Services and Operations.

After the team collects their assigned orders, the materials are placed in transport bins—some in large coolers—and loaded onto special collections box trucks or Eli Express vans, the intra-library delivery vehicles. These same team members make the campus rounds, delivering the selected items to any of the nine university library locations or book drops, at the same time retrieving objects to be refiled onto LSF’s shelves.

“Some of the collections, such as film reels, need to be placed in a cooler because they need time to adjust to the outside climate,” said Killheffer.

New acquisitions and team culture

LSF also receives up to 250,000 new items per year. “Yale Library is continually acquiring new material, and LSF allows us the space we need to be able to grow our collections without creating overcrowding problems in campus libraries. Material that is selected for LSF is first catalogued and properly housed,” said Killheffer.

The team picks up new acquisitions and scans and shelves them — a job made easier by the order picker and a tight-knit team. Since 1998, LSF has successfully retrieved 1.82 million items.

“I think of it like driving a car, finding and then arriving at the right address. In this case, locating the specific aisle, ladder or shelf, and sequence number,” said Shane Gray, office assistant.

Gray, who’s been at Yale and LSF for 20 years, smiles when discussing his role and teammates. “It’s a great place to work. I enjoy coming in every day and seeing these guys who are like my family. My job is exciting and challenging, and there is always something different coming in or going out!” he chuckles.